Reading the Detectives discussion

A Christmas-themed buddy read - this is the second Nigel Strangeways mystery, but it doesn't matter if you haven't read the first one. Anyone who wants to join in with Susan and me is very welcome!

As it might only be a couple of us, I'll just make one thread for now and we can use tags for any spoilers - hope that is OK with everyone.

Susan, thanks for suggesting this one and pointing out it was Christmas-themed - I wouldn't have guessed from the title! I've read the first 5 chapters and am enjoying it so far.

Nigel seems more established as a character than in the first book, where there was maybe a bit too much about him drinking endless cups of tea.

I was also interested to see that the victim seems very sympathetic, which is maybe a bit unusual in GA novels - so often the victim seems to be hated and despised by everyone in sight!

That is a good point, Judy. I am also about five chapters in - although I have read it before. The first novel seems to have been more of an exercise for the the author to see whether he could do it - and perhaps get away with it, under a pseudonym.

The victim is certainly more sympathetic than most in GA novels. You are correct that, usually, they are generally hated - in "Busman's Honeymoon," nobody has a good word to say about the poor guy who got his head bashed in!

Still not keen on the way that GA authors wrote accents though....

I think it's fair enough to use the speech patterns and some dialect terms, but all the phonetic writing is a bit much, I agree!

Reading on a bit further, I was surprised to see that an interesting personal letter turns up used as a "window wedge" - something which also happens in one of the Wimsey books, written several years earlier!

I'm wondering if Blake got the idea from Sayers, or if it was fairly common to use letters to wedge windows shut and keep out draughts, in the days before double glazing?

Mentioning letters reminds me that I found the poison pen letters near the start highly intriguing - looking forward to discovering which character wrote them, and indeed whether it was the killer or not...

I recall ill fitting windows as a child - lots of draughts! I suppose it is a good excuse to fit a clue in.

I am more concerned (can't remember why now) with how both Nigel, and the victim's main servant, were not more vigilant in protecting him, but I sense foul play!

Susan wrote: "Still not keen on the way that GA authors wrote accents though......."

I was never able to read Five Red Herrings because of all the Scottish dialect - I just couldn't 'hear' the voices.

I felt exactly the same, Ruth.

I found the dialect in that one a struggle too!

I do agree about the failure to protect Fergus in this. .. with all that fore-warning, why not arrange a bodyguard?! And the hut was never a good idea...

I am assuming he was drugged - that is not a spoiler, as I don't know yet and I can't remember. However, yes, it was almost as though he wanted to be murdered - even though he called Nigel in to help. It has to be said that he wasn't much help at all though, in reality!

Yes, it's no surprise that the efforts to protect him don't succeed, but it is a surprise that Nigel doesn't try harder!

I enjoy Blake's witty style of writing, and had to laugh at this line today: "We don't know what is in the envelope. It may be an embroidered bed jacket for his Aunt Amelia's canary."

Just struck me that Cecil Day-Lewis was Irish, so he must have enjoyed writing O'Brien's speech patterns. Somehow it keeps half-slipping my mind that Day-Lewis was really the author, just because he used a pseudonym!

Well, I think he would have been pleased about that! I wonder whether 'serious' authors were really proud of their 'popular' fiction? I don't think there was anything to be ashamed of in writing detective fiction, but it was obviously frowned on by many.

Judy wrote: "Just struck me that Cecil Day-Lewis was Irish, so he must have enjoyed writing O'Brien's speech patterns. Somehow it keeps half-slipping my mind that Day-Lewis was really the author, just because h..."

Such good points Judy and Susan. I never think of Nicholas Blake as Cecil Day-Lewis but as a separate writer. That hadn't occurred to me before.

There are several remarks in many GA books about being forced to write detective fiction, etc, as though it was something a serious writer resorted to for cash. Perhaps that was the case, but I think the Detection Club was formed in order for those who actually wrote crime fiction because they wanted to, to band together and get the genre taken seriously.

Did you guess the ending, Judy? Do you think you would read on in the series?

No, the ending was a surprise to me, I didn't guess at all! But I think the clues were there if you look back. I'd like to read more of the series.

That's good to hear, Judy. I think it was a twist too far, but I still enjoyed the book!

Ruth wrote: "I never think of Nicholas Blake as Cecil Day-Lewis but as a separate writer. That hadn't occurred to me before.

Ha, Ruth, so it's not just me who forgets about the author's double identity then! I enjoyed the whole section set in Wexford, where Day-Lewis used to spend his summers as a boy - it's a bit stereotyped, I suppose, but written with so much affection.

Well, I'm almost 2 years late but have just read this after liking Malice in Wonderland and found the solution ingenious - because Fergus is so well characterised, I could believe it. I had an inkling from recognising the quotations but Blake pulled it off brilliantly. I really like the wit and literacy of his writing.

It was nice, too, to get a feel for Nigel - Malice seems to assume we already know him. I loved Georgia, hope he marries her in time-honoured detective fashion!

I am delighted you like Nigel, RC. One of my favourite GA series :)